>Next: Seeds
Planting Vegetables
Give your vegetable garden a good foundation and start before you plant by improving soils, building beds, adding irrigation, and installing sturdy plant supports before planting your vegetable seeds, starts and transplants.
The reward will be a thriving, healthy, and productive garden that will reward you with continuous harvests of vegetables.
In this section and the pages that follow, you’ll find information about the following subjects:
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- How you should prepare your garden site for planting
- How to improve your soil so vegetables grow strong and healthy
- How to plant to produce a good yield of leafy greens, fruit, berries, and root vegetables.
- How to choose and prepare the right containers to use for planting vegetables.
- How to prepare garden soils, planters, and beds for planting vegetables.
First, let’s look at an overview covering each of these topics.
Preparing for Planting
Getting a good start with your beds and plants is smart gardening. It will save headaches later.
Take time to prepare your soil to ensure your vegetables have the right conditions to grow, so they’ll ripen and produce healthy produce, fruit and berries.
For gardens in newly turned earth, check the drainage, fertility, and acid-alkaline balance of your soil. Test it before you plant your vegetables and take any necessary steps to improve it.
Improving Garden Soil
Most garden soils benefit from ample organic material and compost, mulch or humus. These organics loosen dense soils to help them drain, and they’ll help sandy soils retain more water.
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Adding Fertilizer
By improving your soil, you’ll provide your vegetable plants a balanced mix of macronutrients, micronutrients, trace elements, and living soil organisms. Improve garden soil by mixing in fertilizers—balanced, specialty, organic, or synthetic—to keep your vegetable plants healthy.
Soil Amendments
In special situations, specific treatments are necessary. Add garden lime to sweeten your soil and increase its alkalinity, or incorporate sulfur to make it more acidic.
Working in gypsum helps improve drainage and porosity in dense soils, while fertilizers—well-rotted manure or decomposed plant waste—increases vital nutrients. Consider adding enzyme-rich kelp extract to promote strong root development and quick growth.
Learn more about improving garden soil by clicking on these links:
Gardening in Containers
For container and raised-bed gardens, different preparations are necessary. Pots should be sterilized prior to use. Sterilizing containers helps avoid fungal diseases that might kill or stunt your vegetables [see Choosing and Preparing Containers].
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Containers for vegetable plants also need large drain holes to prevent water from standing in the pots. Large drains protected from clogging helps keep the plants from suffocating and reduces the chance of softened roots or fungal infection. Enlarge existing holes, or drill new drain holes as necessary.
Learn more about gardening in containers and preparing pots for planting by clicking on these links:
Beds and Structures
Where garden soil conditions are too challenging or the garden site is located on a steep slope, consider building raised beds or terraces filled with fertile soil. Lining raised beds with porous landscape fabric help assure good drainage and a successful garden.
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Take other preparatory steps before you plant your vegetables. You may wish to protect your garden from animal pests [see Fences and Animal Pests]. To use vertical space and make your vegetable garden more compact, install trellises and other supports before sowing seed; you’ll want to a ready source of water for irrigation regardless of your site and garden type.
Learn more about building beds and other garden structures by clicking on these links:
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